HOw much awake time at 25 months old?

[Carmela's Mom]

I am having nap/sleep time issues.  I just can't seem to find a time that works for everyone.....Carmela is up between 6-7 in the morning.  I never wake her because when I used to, I paid for it all day long. She was awful.  So I let her wake on her own.  She barely ever sleeps past 7 though.  I have had her napping at 1:00 which worked well for the most part (she'd try to refuse sometimes but I'd put her to sleep by 1:30 by rubbing her back for a few minutes).  She'd sleep until 2:30-3, sometimes 3:30.  But bedtime was at 8 and I really think she's just not tired by then.  It takes her 30-60 mins to fall asleep then. 

So I am considering moving nap to 12:30 but I am afraid she's going to not fall asleep and try to skip naps....or maybe I should push bedtime back to 8:30 but everything I read says its too late.

Any suggestions?  How much awake time is your child getting before nap and before bed??

[Florencia]

I'm in the middle of this situation too. My ds used to have an Awake time of 6 hours before nap1 and 5 hours before bedtime and was working quite well. On days i let him nap for longer he was ok to be put down for bedtime at 4:30 or 4:45 hours of awake time but this past week he's just not tired by then. He sings and crawls and plays in the dark for 30-45 mins... or wants us to be in the room playing with him!!!!!!!

I'm trying to move nap back in 15 mins increments each week. So far, i've been putting him down at 5:45 awake time for nap and then that makes him go to bed at 5:15 awake time. He's been doing better, taking 15 mins to settle to sleep. I'll keep doing this for a week more and then move back another 15 mins so we end up in a 5:30 awake time for both periods which is my goal.

I must say that my plan B was getting used to that super late bedtime. I had set my mind into it just in case my main plan does not work.

I beleive that bedtime is a timing that works for you. So if you, your household, dh and dd are ok with 830, then that would be a great bedtime no matter what everyone thinks about it.

HTH! i'll let you know how it works for me!

[imsmum]

Margot will drop off like clockwork 5.5 hours after she wakes from her nap.  Wake time between morning wakeup and nap time varies since she doesn't go down early for her nap even if she is tired --we've tried--but it's usually 6.5 hours from wakeup, which I think is longer than most lo's her age (21 months).  we just go backwards from wakeup time because she has 3 "set" times--she pretty much always sleeps 10 hours at night, falls asleep 5.5 hours after nap and naps for 1.5 to 2 hours.  If Carmela has certain times llke that that don't vary I think you have to go with those and let the other times fall how they may.  

Margot also takes 30 to 60 minutes to fall asleep--usually between 8 and 8:30.  But she is content to chatter away in her crib so she goes in it around 7:30 ish. I have often wondered if the earlier naptime would help but it just doesn't seem to be an option for us even though Margot quickly falls asleep for her nap--she absolutely refuses to go upstairs until her sister leaves for school at 12:45.  I'd love to know it the early naptime works for you though--I may start shipping my older dd off to school early!

[kerrisspencer]

My first son at the age of exactly 2 (now 10) started not wanting to sleep at 8 0'clock, after having a daily sleep from 1.30pm-3.30pm. It would take him so long to go to sleep, like an hour. He also would not be tired enough to nap earlier in the day.....so we dropped his day sleep altogether. This worked wonders! He would start to get tired by late afternoon but adjusted quite quickly, with the odd earlier bedtime.
Enter son number two! All I can say is read the posting "split posting/ walk in walk out" kerrisspencer!



Kerris

[msrsleeves]

hi my toddler is 25 months too his routine is he wakes 8-8.30 plays til 9ish, his nap is between 1.30till 4.30 sometimes i have to wake him at 5 then bed 8-9pm. i know everone says thats too late but it works for us, since i had DS#2 i hav tried to put him to bed earlier about 8 so i can have some time on a night. so recently he's waking 8 ish but he is sooo happy playing in his cot, he is really active i think thats why he needs so much sleep.

[Carmela's Mom]

Thanks for all the replies.  I am still trying the 12:30 nap, but she has been playing a lot and both days I've had to put her to sleep myself by rubbing her back, something I don't want to do....BUT she's falling asleep faster at night so I guess it's working??? She's only been napping 1.5 hours so maybe that is why she's sleeping faster at night.  We are going to continue with 12:30 nap and I'm going to try to not put her to sleep for a few days and see if that works at all.

Thanks and for those of you that are going through this as well, please keep me posted on your progress.

[imsmum]

Carmela's mom--our late nights also seem to be resulting in earlier wakeups so Margot is sometimes only getting 9.5 hours sleep at night plus a 2 hour nap.  the nanny got her down 15 minutes early today so she only napped for 1.5 hours.  I'm also going to try an earlier bedtime tonight with the hope that it results in a later sleep in the morning.   When Carmela has a shorter nap/earlier bedtime what happens to her morning wakeup time?

[Carmela's Mom]

It really depends.  It used to be that I could guarantee that if she was up more than 30 mins after I put her in her bed, I was guaranteed a wake up for 6 or earlier.  But now she seems to still wake up between 5:45-6 but gets herself back to sleep within 10 mins and she sleeps until 6:50-7:10.....but that's only been the last two mornings (since I put the alumunium foil on her windows!!!)

[Mum of girl, boy, boy]

Oh what fun this age is. I have been trying to work out my DD for so long now. No soon as I get it she gets ill!!!!!

I really want her to go to sleep at 7pm and sleep to 7am as I have another lo. What I have been finding is that if I put her down too late she will sleep for too long and then not go to bed until really late. Or the worst one is she is crying out every 30 mins from 3am!!!!! I hate it so much.

I reckon DD's day should look a bit like this.
Wake 0630/7am
Sleep 1pm
Wake 230ish
7/730 bed.

The other day she slept an extra 30 mins and she was up 2 hours longer before bed.

Not sure if I am going to pay today as she slept lots in the day. I wasn't sure how much to let her have because she's been unwell and up at night a lot.

Gosh it's a hard one.

J

[Carmela's Mom]

Well this morning she was up at 5 a.m.!!!!!!!!  Yesterday she screamed hysterically at nap and then only napped for 50 minutes so I am PRAYING that its her teeth or else I am DEAD next week when the baby comes home too! 

[Florencia]

Hey Julie, my first guess is that Lottie is overtired since her nap is being a bit late. I would try to put her down for nap 30 mins earlier (a 6 hours awake time at most) and then bedtime no later than 7 (even 630 0r 645) that should fix her night wakings.

Crying out every 30 mins at night could indicate overtiredness or teething so giving a pain aid before bed should also be helpful.

HTH!

Carmela's mom... i'm speechless... things seemed to be going so well. i can't think of anything else to suggest so I'll pray for carmela to settle and be a good girl for when lil bro comes home. DOn't worry, everything's going to be fine, you just keep up the good work you were doing and relax!

[imsmum]

Carmela's mom--do you think the short nap could be related to having the longer sleep in the morning?  I swear with Margot she just has a max # of hours she'll sleep in the day.  If she naps 1.5 hours she'll sleep 10 hours at night but if she naps for 2 hours we get 9.5 hours tops at night.  I'm figuring it's teeth as well or that we're at that dreaded stage where the 1 nap starts interfering with night sleep but they still need it to get through the day.

Florencia, how has shifting the nap worked for you?  Are the naps and night time sleep the same?

[Carmela's Mom]

I really don't know.  I do know that if she sleeps longer than 2 hours, it interferes with her falling asleep at bedtime.  But yesterday she woke up crying hysterical and didn't even calm down when I walked in.  Now today she napped 1.5 hours (her normal) and whined a bit when she woke up but calmed down right away when she saw me.  She's still tired after her nap - yawning, etc. but I am not putting her in until 8:00.  I put her in earlier last night and I'm afraid that had to do with the earlier waking.  I just don't know.

[Mum of girl, boy, boy]

Hi there,

Sorry for hijacking your post. DD had 3 hours nap yesterday. Woke a couple of times in the night but we just told her it was bedtime and she went back (I think she was use to us being there after the last 7 days of illness). In total she did 12 hours.

I have tried putting her down earlier and it can make a difference. I tend to have more of a problem with putting her down late as it can cause her to sleep to much and not be ready for bed at 7pm. We can also swing from too much sleep to too little sleep. Then when illness and teeth throw us off I don't know what to do to get us back on track.

What I did notice is that if she sleeps for more than 1hr 40 (1 sleep cycle) she will be awake chatting for over an hour when I put her down at 7pm. If she does go down straight away the second half of the night she wakes up. I obviously only spot this when I've had a few weeks running of no illness etc. We still want DD to do 7til7 so I know I'll probably have to wake her up to perserve the sleep if we do get a run at it.

I have no way of predicting when she will wake in a good mood but it can take her a good 30 mins to calm down. I don't know why she gets so funny about it. I stick to the same routine when she wakes. Sofa with duvet, biscuit and drink, cbeebies.

As a baby DD slept loads and I guess still does to some extent. She was one of the first to go to 1 nap and I don't know if that is also telling me that she will be one of the first to drop the slept. Am I right in thinking that the toddlers that nap for long periods have later bedtimes?

I guess it will all come out in the wash.

Good luck

J

[Carmela's Mom]

Wow Julie we sound very similar I think